A new concept, practice capital, which extends the concept of social capital to collaborative projects is proposed in my chapter to the upcoming volume on the research significance of the C-Span Video Archive. I should mention that the archive is hosted in West Lafayette, has a special partnership with Purdue University, and is headed by my colleague, Robert Browning. The concept will demonstrate how video recordings can be used as raw materials for social network analysis of debates.

In this context practice is defined in rhetorical terms. A debate is a series of arguments about a topic. It is a hortatory social practice. Talking to other members of the debate is not as important as engaging the topic at the central point of the debate to practically change opinions or a state of fact. Finding the right moment to say something is a particular phronesis (practical reason) skill, which is a core component of any rhetorical and some might say social practice (Flyvbjerg, 2001; Geertz, 2001). Practice in this context entails all the activities of all the actors engaged in a debate, regardless if they address each other communicatively direct or not. The practice space of a debate is similar to a worksite. It is not necessary for the work to progress that the workers talk to each other. Important is that the workers do their job and participate as much as they can in the activities required by their building project.

To capture practice capital all that is said is connected to all that was said by other speakers by measuring the distance in time between what was said and by moderating the link by the amount of what was said, using a gravitational pull formula: M*m/d2. Once the ties are established, you can measure the degree of centrality for each team member, which becomes his or her level of practice capital. More central members have the greatest influence on the practice.

Abstract: The paper argues that the C-Span archive is not a mere repository of moving pictures. It can also be seen as a one of a kind “big data” repository. If processed from a “practice capital” perspective with quantitative and network analytic tools, such data can significantly extend the capabilities of C-Span archives by identifying the central actors in a debate and their ability to sway it. The proposed approach may serve the public interest though API tools that support third party development of visualization and analytic apps, which can lead to more informed debates and new forms of data driven journalism.